Airtel Africa reports 5% decline in profit for Q1 2023

Despite a progress in income, Airtel Africa has reported a 5% drop in their profit for the primary quarter of the yr. Airtel’s CEO cites the difficult working surroundings and worries about forex devaluation. 

According to a monetary assertion revealed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), Airtel Africa has reported a 5% decline in their profit for the primary quarter of 2023. 

Airtel’s profit after tax (PAT) for the interval below evaluate dropped by 0.6% to $750m, in comparison with $755m throughout the identical interval in 2022. Conversely, the telco’s income grew by 11.5% to $5.25m in Q1 2023, in comparison with $4.71m in the identical interval in 2022. 

Commenting on the monetary efficiency, Airtel Africa’s chief government officer (CEO), Olusegun Ogunsanya, said that the working surroundings of the corporate has been difficult in some ways and expressed hopes of enchancment over the quite a few challenges. 

“The resilience of our underlying EBITDA margins has shown the effectiveness of our operating model, despite significant inflationary and foreign exchange pressures. Strong customer and ARPU growth over the year demonstrates that demand for our services remains very strong and gives us the confidence to continue investing to support our future growth potential,” Ogunsanya stated.

Ogunsanya additionally famous that the native currencies of its working nations have been below strain. He admitted that forex devaluation is past the telco’s management, however plans have been put in place to mitigate its influence by making certain its revenues outpaces devaluation. 

Airtel Africa additionally revealed that its income progress for the quarter was impacted by clampdown on Nigerian subscribers who had not submitted their National Identification Number (NIN). The telco famous that as of March 2023, 6.4 million prospects had submitted their NINs whereas 3.5 million prospects had been absolutely verified and unbarred. According to the monetary assertion, the clampdown prompted a income lack of $110m in the reviewed interval, resulting in a lag in income progress of just about 2.4% at Group stage, and 6% in Nigeria.

The telco’s monetary assertion additionally reported that its cell companies income grew by 16.2% throughout its areas. Mobile companies income was up by 20.3% in Nigeria , in east Africa by 13.4% and in francophone Africa by 11.9%. 

“Mobile services revenue growth was driven by both voice and data services, voice revenue grew by 11.8% and data revenue by 23.8%. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6%, driven by 32.6% growth in east Africa and 20.3% in francophone Africa,” the report learn.